Discovering the Landing Place of Endeavour

The day was going to be nice and warm even though it was still technically winter. I know, I whinge a lot about the cold but it is only because I feel cold a lot faster these day. The autoimmune disease seems to have flipped the thermostat switch in my body. I was used to the cold and actually enjoyed the cold weather. After living for a couple of decades in a cold country I was used to looking for a fan when temperatures hit 25C. The flip of my thermostat means 20C and out comes my fleece and warm socks and even a woolly hat if it’s lower than 17C! However, I can happily sit around without breaking a sweat till 30C and think about a fan only when it gets higher than that. Oh but I digress!!

Since it was a nice sunny and warm day and I was feeling reasonably good we decided to go out for a drive to some south beach. We had not been to Cronulla beach since we came here but had been there when we visited in 2009. I remembered that it is a much bigger bay and beach than the famous Bondi. Being a working day we thought it would be better as it would be less crowded. The drive was good and we got to the turning to Cronulla. It was a smaller road and as we went past a roundabout I thought we had missed turning right. My husband thought not. 

Anyway we carried on this Captain Cook Drive and the road became narrower. The sides had grasses and shrubs with the smell of brine in the air. We seems to be going right to the sea and not sure exactly where. I had a quick look at the road map and identified we would be reaching the end of the road at some point on Botany Bay at a place called Kurnell. The town has 2 streets and it curves out to run along the bay. The houses are really nice and the place looks cheerful in the sunshine. There were a couple of shops and a café / restaurant. We parked in front of the café with a little grassy strip and then the tiny strip of sand and the waves of the bay lapping there. There is a nice promenade to walk along the length of the street with benches to have picnics.

“Kurnell is considered to be ‘the birthplace of modern Australia’, as it is the place where Captain James Cook landed on 29 April 1770, making first contact with the original inhabitants of the area, the Gweagal Aborigines whilst navigating his way up the East Coast of Australia on Endeavour” (according to Wikipedia). From New Zealand, Cook had orders to find this ‘rich southern continent of Terra Australis’. The captain aimed to reach the coast of Tasmania but the gales took the ship to the south east coast of Australia hitting Victoria. They continued northwards along the coast and came up to a shallow but extensive inlet and the ship was moored for the first landing of the crew in this continent. At first the bay was called ‘Sting-Ray Harbour’ but later called ‘Botanist Bay’ as the botanists Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander and Herman Spöring found many new plant specimens. This was later shortened to ‘Botany Bay’. 

The end of the road leads into the Kamay Botany Bay National Park. The ‘Burrawang walk’ has a board to welcome the visitors all with a kookaburra on sitting on the sign. The path goes along the water’s edge, most of the time with a very tiny strip of beach now and then. 

There is a stone bollard like marker that signifies the place where the ship had been moored. There is also a memorial obelisk on the land. This place is called the Sutherland Point after a ship’s crew who is buried there. He was the first British person to die (due to TB) in Australia. 

There are also commemorations for botanists Daniel Solander and Joseph Banks. There is a small area where the path is across a narrow outlet of water going into the bay. On one side there is a curved seating area dedicated to Banks. 

Along the path on either side there is vegetation and actual information plaques about the local flora and fauna. The day we went there was a tremendous noise made by the frogs but could we even see one? No. There are ferns and grasses and many really old trees. 

Also along the edge there is a small wooden pier and with memorial plaques about the events of Captain Cook’s landing and their interaction with the aborigines. You can stand on the pier and look at the clear water gently lapping on the rocks or when it turns windy there are a lot of small choppy waves.

There was an oil refinery here that closed down in 2014. The day we were there we saw a big tanker and the platforms still being used. This is now going to be used as a terminal for importing petroleum. Across the bay and beyond the cranes is the Sydney skyline, the high rise blocks around the Circular Quay. Just round the corner from the bay is the Sydney airport and so during the day time there is a continual traffic of planes landing and taking off. The only thing that jars the usual twittering of birds and croaking of the frogs is the sound of these airplanes, particularly when the direction of the wind it inland.  

The path takes you to the Cape Solander (named after botanist Daniel Solander) which is the best place for watching whale migration in Sydney. There is the Solander Monument with plaques to commemorate the botanist. There is a lovely walk that takes you around the sand dunes and one sees a wide variety of plants which would have fascinated those botanists. All in all a very pleasant visit rounded off by a nice cup of hot chocolate and piece of cake at the café. Then we went off to find the Cronulla beach which was our original destination.

First Meeting

I have been married for 28 years

It is more than half my life in years

I used to think that ‘marriages are made in heaven’ is a lore

Meeting the man I would love was a matter of searching and no more

To that end I joined Dateline

To get meet men with similar needs as mine

He came to pick me up for the first date

I had to first peek from the window before I opened the gate

I liked what I saw and crossed my fingers that he would too

This man with a moustache and obvious penchant for colour blue

It was strange to be going on a date

To view the Le Corbusier exhibition and walk around the Tate

Just got reminded, not Tate, Haywood

Well I at least remembered the event that I should

A wander around Oxford Circus in the afternoon sun

I thought was fun

Wondered what he thought of me?

Would he ask for another date with me?

He was going back to West Country by train

But waited till it was time for my train

At the local pub in the station

Trying to think of ways to put this relationship in motion

I asked him out right, since I am the extrovert

Are we meeting again? Is this pay dirt?

You could see the relief in his eyes

For he did not have to verbalise

Yes we will meet again soon

He would come to meet me at home and I was over the moon

We married in a few months

The saga turned to years from months

But that’s a tale for another day

With short poems to mark the pleasures along the way

What are the chances of and Indian girl finding a Australian /Welsh man

Across the country in England

For across the seas we travelled since fate intervened

To affirm that marriages are destined

What you make of this gift is up to you

For living together is building a life with you.

Communication Gap

Using words is an art some say

It helps to use the right words I say

Something simple can turn complex and confusing

Often people make things worse in explaining

Maybe it would be easier communicating in points

Rather than complicated sentences with complex joints

The conversation can be at cross- purposes

When reading is only for response purposes

Taking time to read and understand the message

Formulate a response addressing the questions in the message

Seems to have been brushed aside in the haste to respond

We are flitting from message to message like insect from puddle to pond

The speed of communication seems to have taken over

At the expense of quality and clarity forever

Surprising to see how many cannot write

Put forward their viewpoint in a manner that is understood right

Is it their ability to write or lack of understanding?

Or is it their ego and self-belief that their knowledge is all encompassing?

The short hand in communication is wide

Texting words and emoticons leaving room for meaning to hide

Leaving both parties confused and cross

For neither have got their message across

Leaving a feeling of something missing

A disappointment in coversing!

Winter in my Garden

Down Under we are topsy-turvy and I still am amazed after 4 years that flowering of plants is right through the year and even at different times. Now I can hear you think, ‘they would follow your seasons… duh!’ This does not hold much water as it probably is more to do with temperatures and rainfall. So let me just start with winter – a good weather and time of year as any to start this journey in my garden.

The tree at the end of the garden with large seed pods  from one of the creepers. With so many of them about it is hard to say which one these belong to as this is the first year we have seen them.

Winter begins on 1^st of June and around that time I found some buds showing up on the daffodils and snowdrops. This is a different variety of daffs than I have seen before and must have been planted by the previous tenant. For the first year I had no leaves even to indicate there were these blubs in the ground. 

The daffodils actually show up as clusters on a single branch. 

The snowdrops are in a small patch round the back next to the water boiler and were a pleasant surprise.

We did get a few roses growing in the single bush by the kitchen window. The opening of the buds catalogued by my husband is included here.

In the front garden there is a bush / creeper. Well I was not sure what it was as it sent out these long branches that reached up to the roof pretty fast and I had to keep cutting them back. The first year there were no flowers, so I had no idea what the plant was. The next year there were one or two small yellow flowers and looked like roses. This year, after good pruning of last 3 years, there was a explosion of beautiful pale yellow almost creamy roses and it turns out to be a rose creeper that could cover the walls if I leave it to grow. But then I do not think it would flower so well.

Another surprise was the nistercium plant. There is a small plant growing next to the thorny pink rose bush and in the past I have had a few nicely orange and yellow flowers show up. But strangely this year, most likely due to large amounts of rain through summer and autumn, I believe, there has been an explosion of this plant. It had sent out creepers all around and flowered like crazy. The leaves growing large also like the lily pad leaves. 

The blue flower in here is from another plant. There was a nicely branching plant I saw at the edge of someone's garden. I picked a small branch to pot to grow this succulent type of plant and I got these pretty delicate blue flowers.

The other one that sends vines all around the garden, across the fence and on to the neighbour’s and our garage is the morning glory. 

The white flowers are fromanotehr creeper and I have yet to find out what it is!

There are also a couple of bulbs of spectacular orange-flowered amaryllid. There are some pretty delicate purple / blue flowers that I am sure are a kind of weed.

The grass is green and full of clover especially when the sun warms up the ground after heavy rains. The rain and odd hailstorm are wonderful to watch.

The winter time is when we get our harvest of limes. There tree has huge thorns and was badly in need of a prune. Having cut it back for the last 3 years we got a decent harvest of about 15 limes this year.

Finally, also this winter we discovered out resident blue tongued lizard. Seems to be living under the house and comes out to bask in the winter sunshine.